The Marriage Solution
by SiriusMarauderFan
Summary: Remus always wanted a family - he just never expected to get his wish after a drunken one night stand with his best friend. Sirius never anticipated getting married, but he didn't seem opposed to the idea now that Remus was carrying his baby.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** This is heavily based on a book of the same name by Brenda Harlen. I've changed quite a bit of the events though. :)

Written for...

Resurrect Romance

MC Mondays

* * *

 **Chapter One**

 _1,015 words_

* * *

"What's this?" Remus demanded, peering at the small potion bottle Sirius had thrust into his hand without so much as a hello.

"It's a pregnancy test."

Remus stared in horror at the bright pink label that proclaimed ' _Philippa's Pregnancy Potions_.'

"I don't need this," he said, trying to hand the bottle back. Sirius shook his head.

"I think you do. We slept together, Remus-"

A door slammed further down the hall. Remus quickly stepped back from the door to allow Sirius to enter his flat. The last thing he needed was his neighbours overhearing about his drunken one night stand.

He stalked to the sofa, slamming the potion onto the coffee table with more force than was necessary, hoping the bottle would break. It didn't.

Sirius took the chair across from him, calmly looking between Remus and the bottle. "You need to drink that."

"I'm not pregnant," Remus insisted. "If that's all you're here for, you can go."

"You missed Harry's birthday party."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I had to work. I sent a gift."

"And I stopped by your office yesterday. Murtagh told me you'd been out sick all week."

"It's just the flu. I'm already feeling better."

Sirius looked skeptical. "Well I thought it was better to be safe … it's been a month now."

Remus winced. As if he needed reminders. "I know."

"Are we ever going to talk about what happened? I've been keeping my distance-"

"It was a stupid mistake, Sirius. I'd rather we just forget it ever happened."

Sirius hung his head. "I feel like I should apologize though. I shouldn't have taken advantage of you-"

"You didn't," Remus quickly interjected. "I was drunk, I came onto you. This is my fault."

"But I still should have ended it."

They stared at each other for a long moment and Remus was painfully aware of how awkward the moment was. This was the reason he had avoided all situations where they might've run into each other - much as it pained him to miss Harry's party.

Remus sighed. "Can we just pretend it never happened and go back to how things were? I don't want things to be awkward between us."

Sirius smirked. "It's not going to be easy to forget, but I could try." Remus felt himself relax. "If you drink the potion."

"I'm not pregnant! It's impossible."

"Come on now, I know you remember Pomfrey's lecture from fifth year as well as I do. 'One in thirty wizards are capable of becoming pregnant.'"

"But I'm not one of them. The lycanthropy would cancel it out."

"Have you ever gotten checked out?" Sirius smiled triumphantly, already knowing what Remus' answer would be. He crossed his arms over his chest.

Remus rolled his eyes. "No."

"Then I'm not leaving until you drink that potion."

"This is a waste of time," Remus muttered, reaching for the bottle. Despite his words, he felt a knot forming in his stomach as he downed the overly sweet liquid.

They sat in silence for a long moment as they waited for something to happen. Remus allowed himself a relieved smile after a minute had passed.

And then he started glowing.

The men couldn't take their eyes away from the pure white light surrounding Remus' abdomen until the light faded and they were left processing what it meant.

"We're having a baby," Sirius said quietly.

Remus nodded. He felt like throwing up - and not for the same reason that had been bothering him all week. Morning sickness, he realized.

"I'm sorry," Sirius continued.

"Two apologies in one day. This is remarkable."

"This is all my fault, I-"

Remus stopped him. "Stop apologizing, Sirius. I'm not upset."

Sirius blinked in confusion. "Really?"

He shrugged. "I've always wanted a family, I just didn't expect it to happen like this."

Sirius nodded, seemingly trying to come to terms with the news himself. Remus left him to process and went about making them tea, if only to keep his hands busy.

He knew it hadn't hit him fully yet. It would dawn on him later, when he was lying alone in bed. Then he would probably have a panic attack and make a dozen lists about how he wasn't fit to be a father.

He didn't hear Sirius follow him to the kitchen.

"I want you to know, you're not going to have to do this alone."

Remus laughed. "I _am_ alone."

"But you don't have to be. This is my baby too and I have every intention of being there for you both."

"You don't have any obligations here. I'm not going to force you to-"

"I'm not doing this out of obligation, Remus," he insisted sternly. "This is my child."

Remus nodded. He knew how important family was to Sirius and he had no doubts that Sirius would keep his word.

"We should get married," Sirius suggested suddenly.

Remus snorted. "Right, like _you_ want to get married."

"I'm … I'm serious."

"And that's why you're sweating? Sirius, I'm not having a shotgun wedding. But thank you for the offer."

Sirius sighed, probably relieved that his pseudo-proposal had been rejected. "Sorry, automatic response to the M-word. But it really is the best option for us, Remus. I don't want to miss out on anything."

"You won't. We'll make this work somehow, I promise. Marriage isn't the solution to our problem."

Sirius frowned. For a moment, Remus thought he was upset, but he knew Sirius too well for that. He hadn't had a relationship last longer than a couple of months in close to two years. Marriage was out of the question.

"Look. I appreciate you checking on me and, honestly, I'm relieved that we're talking again, but I could use a little while to process everything. Could we talk later?"

"Yeah, of course. I'll … I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Remus walked Sirius to the door, mindful of any nosy neighbours.

"If you need anything - and I mean anything - please let me know?" Sirius begged, blocking the door.

Remus smiled and nodded. "I will. Goodbye, Sirius."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** I realized after I posted the first chapter that I forgot to mention that this is a No Voldemort!AU, it might be a bit obvious considering we're talking about happy wolfstar but I just wanted to be sure that no one was confused when there's no mention of Voldemort or the war.

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

 _1,048 words_

* * *

Remus sighed inaudibly, unable to keep himself from fidgeting as he reread the same sentence for the third time. He had hoped the Quidditch magazine would be able to keep his mind off of his current predicament, but he really had no interest in what broom polish Catriona McCormack used.

Still, he was grateful to have found a magazine that didn't relate to pregnancy in some way. It was bad enough that he was surrounded on both sides by women with large pregnant bellies/ Every few moments he would glance up at the witch sitting across from him who struggled to keep her toddler occupied and just looking at her would send him into a panic.

How was he going to manage a baby on his own? He was lucky to have found work and a place to live as it was - if anything should ever jeopardize that, how would he provide for his child?

"Mr. Lupin, Healer Sutton will see you now."

Remus felt all eyes on him, the only man there to see a maternity healer. As calmly as he could manage, he returned the magazine to the stand and followed the welcome witch to an exam room.

The healer, a blonde woman not much older than him, sat in the corner reading through a file that Remus assumed to be his medical history. The welcome witch closed the door and suddenly another wave of anxiety hit him. Healers were usually understanding of Remus' condition, but with the addition of his pregnancy, there was no telling how the appointment was going to go.

"Mr. Lupin, please sit down."

He did so quickly and began fiddling with the cuff of his shirt. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

The healer smiled. "Of course. These things do happen unexpectedly most of the time." She glanced down at the file. "Now, you told Cynthia that you believe you're pregnant?"

"Yes. I took a pregnancy potion yesterday and I … glowed."

She chuckled and scribbled something in the file. "Store bought potions aren't as reliable as the spells we can run. Besides the potion, do you have any other reason to suspect you may be pregnant?"

"Well, I haven't been feeling well the last two weeks. I bought a potion to help with morning sickness and I've been fine since I took it."

"That is a pretty solid indicator, but I still wouldn't get your hopes up just yet. We tend to only see one or two cases of male pregnancy a year."

"I had thought I wouldn't able to conceive … given my condition."

Healer Sutton nodded seriously. "That's an interesting theory, but there's no evidence to support it. Quite honestly, Mr. Lupin, if we confirm that you are pregnant, you'll be the first male lycanthrope to be recorded as doing so in the UK. Not to say there haven't been others, but most lycanthropes don't attend regular check-ups."

She approached his chair with her wand drawn and Remus resisted the urge to flee. "I'm going to recommend you stay as still as possible while I perform the test, about a minute or so. It won't hurt, but moving around could skew the results."

Remus did as the healer said. He leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes, trying to pretend he was back home.

"You're free to move now," Healer Sutton told him a minute later.

He opened his eyes to find a transparent yellow shield over his stomach.

"The spell allows me to see the baby's vitals," she explained.

"So … there is a baby?"

"Yes. The yellow light confirms a second lifeform. Congratulations, you're going to be a father."

He felt himself smiling before the news fully registered with him. Even then, he realized he was truly excited about the news, if still terrified.

"Everything appears to be fine with the little one," the healer continued, oblivious to Remus' internal struggle. "I'd wager you're a month along. I won't be able to tell you much more until your next visit."

Remus readied himself for the bad news to come. "Are you going to take it away from me?"

Healer Sutton cocked her head. "Why would I do that?"

"You know what I am. The baby could-"

"Lycanthropy is not hereditary, Mr. Lupin. Even if it was, I see no reason to believe you would be an unfit parent." She smiled warmly. "Relax and enjoy the process. It'll be over before you know it."

:-:

Remus rushed through the Ministry, passing by confused workers in the Spirit and Being divisions until he reached the offices labelled Beast. The Werewolf sub-division occupied a small corner of the Beast offices, separated from the rest by partition walls.

Passing by Murtagh's desk was unavoidable. The sub-division's leader insisted on conducting his business in the common area instead of in a private cubicle.

Remus stopped at his boss' desk and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry I'm late."

Murtagh looked up from the morning Daily Prophet and smiled. "Are you? Well. Good to have you back, Lupin." He went back to his newspaper.

Remus breathed a sigh and started heading for his cubicle.

"Oh, and you just missed your friend."

Remus turned back. "Friend?"

"Brown or White or something. He's been stopping by all week. He was waiting at your desk for a while."

Remus hurried to his cubicle, afraid of what he might find there. There was still confetti on the floor of James' office from the last time Sirius snuck in.

The cubicle was empty, which Remus was thankful for. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone right now, least of all the uptight coworker he was forced to share his workspace with. Upon first glance, nothing seemed out of place.

A stack of recent sightings of Greyback and his followers was still piled on Remus' desk next to the report he was writing. However the bar of Honeyduke's chocolate laying on top definitely hadn't been there when he left last.

Remus smiled, unable to be upset at the gift. Sirius knew him too well.

He took the bar, preparing to have a sweet lunch when he noticed the message scrawled on the wrapper.

 _'Dinner at my place tonight. No excuses. - S'_

* * *

 **A/N:** So I'm not following the original book completely and I really don't know how this is going to end. I would really love to hear what you guys think is going to happen - including the baby's gender and name ideas (I haven't decided yet).

So please review. :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** Thanks so much to Emiliya for helping me to make Sirius an idiot, Bex for betaing! :)

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

 _1,032 words_

* * *

After much deliberation, Remus arrived at Sirius' place at seven o'clock on the dot. He had considered every way out of the situation, and knew that each one would end with Sirius showing up at his flat with dinner instead.

This was safer and easier, even if standing in Sirius' living room brought back all the memories he'd been trying to suppress of their night together. The door to the bedroom was open and Remus had to keep his back turned to avoid staring at the unmade bed.

"Dinner's almost ready," Sirius announced, setting two butterbeers on the table.

"Do you need any help?"

"No, no. You're a guest. Sit."

Sirius made a show of pulling a chair out for him, which Remus accepted only so he wouldn't insult his host. In truth, Sirius hadn't gone as overboard as Remus had expected upon reading his note that afternoon. The lights weren't dimmed, there was no mood music, nor candles on the table. All of Sirius' usual wooing touches were absent and it was a great relief to think that they might be able to spend an evening together as friends rather than … whatever they had become.

"Now presenting Sirius Black's world famous spaghetti and meatballs - by which I mean Mum's amazing spaghetti and meatballs that she's graciously given me the recipe for."

He set two heaping plates down on the table with a proud grin.

"This looks good," Remus commented, poking at the meatballs with his fork. He had expected something closer to dog food.

"There's no need to sound so surprised," Sirius said with a pout.

"I don't think I've ever seen you cook before."

Sirius shrugged, digging into his own pasta. "I thought it was about time I learned how to."

Remus didn't press the issue, suspecting the answer would have something to do with the pregnancy.

The meal passed by quickly and rather calmly. Despite his earlier reservations, the evening didn't seem forced or awkward. The discussion never strayed beyond work, and it was as if their night together never happened.

When the meal ended, Remus stood and began clearing the dishes, only to have Sirius take the plates from his hands.

"I've got this," he insisted, trying to take the plates back. "You cooked, I can clear."

Sirius shook his head roughly. "Nope. Go sit and get off your feet. I'll bring dessert in a minute."

Remus rolled his eyes but did as he was told, sulking on the sofa until Sirius brought him a bowl of chocolate ice cream with fudge sauce on top.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to bribe me with all this chocolate," he joked.

"You're eating for two now, I figure that means you need double the amount of chocolate you normally consume."

And there was the inevitable change of topic. Still, Remus was willing to go along with almost anything if it meant more sweets.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, peacefully enjoying their ice cream. Remus could tell Sirius was itching to talk; it wasn't in his nature to be quiet for long periods of time. When his bowl was empty, he decided to break the silence himself.

"I saw a healer today."

Sirius perked up immediately. "Is everything okay?"

"So far, yeah. She won't be able to tell too much until my check-up next month."

"Do you think … could I come with you next time?"

"I think that's a good idea."

Sirius smiled, and for a split second Remus felt at ease, like they might actually be able to make things work. And then Sirius had to open his mouth and ruin the moment.

"Have you told anyone about the pregnancy yet? Your parents?"

Remus froze. "No. I'm not ready for that just yet." He tried to imagine sitting down with his parents to tell them the news but just the idea made him feel nauseous.

"What about your job?"

"What about it?"

"Well, have you thought of what you're going to do? Obviously you can't keep your job."

Remus bristled. Surely Sirius hadn't meant anything bad, but then the last time someone tried to tell him how he ought to be living his life, it hadn't ended well.

"What do you mean? It's taken me years to get where I am. Why would I leave?"

"You're going to have a child, Remus. Maybe you'll be able to go back in a few years, but you can't think of keeping such a dangerous job with a baby on the way?"

The comment was met with silence as Remus attempted to keep his growing anger in check. Of all people, Sirius should have known how much Remus' job meant to him, how hard he'd worked to prove himself. And now he was just expected to throw it all away?

"Are you okay?"

Remus saw the concern on Sirius' face, but he was past the point of pretending like the words hadn't stung.

"I'm fine," he said, his tone clipped. He placed the empty bowl down on the coffee table and strode to the door. "I was just being foolish, I suppose."

"Remus, that's not-"

"No, it's fine. I should go home. I have a lot to think about. Goodnight."

He let the door slam behind him and stormed down the stairs, tears pooling in his eyes. He wiped them away with the sleeve of his cardigan as he made it out outside.

It wasn't even nine yet and all Remus wanted to do was curl up in bed, but his apartment was quiet and he wasn't sure he could handle that right now.

He thought of James and Lily. They had a pull-out couch that they'd let him crash on when his place was being exterminated, but he couldn't impose on them tonight. There would be questions. They'd insist on knowing why he hadn't come to Harry's party, why he was upset. They'd call Sirius over.

Shaking his head, he pulled out his wand and waved it into the street, calling the Knight Bus.

He would think of something, somewhere to go, but for now he just needed to get away.


End file.
